Black Maple Hill inquiry

[LakeJ]

Can you guy's help answer a few questions about Black Maple Hill ? 1: How often is it released ? 2: Is it just an 8yr expression ? 3: Where is the juice sourced from ? I see California Vineyards Inc.puts it out. Where is the juice sourced from ? What's the going price now a day's. I asked my local guy to see if he can get me a bottle, he made a few calls and said he can't find any.

[Paddy]

this may help...

http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?22145-Black-Maple-Hill-Oregon-Straight-Bourbon-Oregon-Straight-Rye&highlight=black+maple+hill

[tanstaafl2]

From what I understand it comes from a guy working out of a garage in the San Francisco area. He puts out what he can find from wherever he can find it. In the "good old days" he was able to source some pretty nice age stated whiskey similar to the older bottlings from Willet/KBD. Nowadays not so much as the link above indicates.

If you find some of the older age stated bottlings at a reasonable price it is probably worth buying (that is getting hard to do of course). Sadly, nothing put out recently seems worth the mark up seemingly based primarily on the name and the reputation built up back in those "good old days".

Edited March 6, 2015 by tanstaafl2

[wadewood]

BMH is a NDP. The age stated stuff was tasty. But all the current stuff they are selling is NAS and IMHO should be avoided.

[LakeJ]

Thanks guys for the link. I checked the forum before I posted but I must have missed this.

[LakeJ]

this may help...

http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?22145-Black-Maple-Hill-Oregon-Straight-Bourbon-Oregon-Straight-Rye&highlight=black+maple+hill

Yes I did check this post but sadly it was no help. Thank you thou.

[JGriff]

New stuff is young Oregon juice. Must've run out of Kentucky juice. I got a few bottles in 2013 but haven't seen the new stuff but a buddy of mine said the new BMH is bad with a capital B.

[LakeJ]

New stuff is young Oregon juice. Must've run out of Kentucky juice. I got a few bottles in 2013 but haven't seen the new stuff but a buddy of mine said the new BMH is bad with a capital B.

Yes that's the consensus I'm getting here. I'm more interested in the Kentucky juice if I ever come across a bottle.

[nd2005]

Yes that's the consensus I'm getting here. I'm more interested in the Kentucky juice if I ever come across a bottle.

The kentucky stuff in the red bottle has been around for a while. The consensus from experts is that the source and age of this have varied from release to release. It is not consistently eight years, nor is it consistently sourced from the same distillery.

You have to understand what this company actually is. When people say it's a guy in his garage that's not an exaggeration.

He buys barrels in lots from distilleries, and rents time on a bottling line. At last report, he was then literally hand labeling the bottles in his garage.

He struck his fortune by buying some really great aged bourbons at a time when the market for those products was very undeveloped. Some of his barrels were sourced from the Van Winkle family, who have gone on to say they made a mistake letting such good bourbon/rye go.

The red label stuff used to be decent and was probably 6-8 years old. I'm not sure why you think it was ever an 8yr product as it was never age-stated and varied from release to release.

There is no pattern to the timing of the releases. Basically he put out a release whenever he could buy suitable barrels to make a batch. The last release of the Kentucky stuff was over a year ago and it seems doubtful at this point that there will be any more. It used to retail for $35-40, but the last release tried to push the MSRP up to $60.

If you can find a bottle for $40 you can give it a try, but I wouldn't go out of my way to hunt one down. It is not anything to write home about.

[Tony Santana]

I've had a couple bottles of the red label stuff (and have another unopened in the bunker) and thought they were both very good. That said, everything said above is accurate (to my knowledge), red label can be variable, and stay away from the Oregon stuff.

[squire]

The brand had a fortunate start when the owner teamed up with Julian Van Winkle who sourced, selected and bottled the whisky. A memorable product resulted (the 16 year old was well thought of) but that golden stream has long since been mined out. The owner has subsequently gone through a series of increasingly mediocre sourced whiskys apparently unconcerned things have gone downhill so long as the stuff sells.

Some still think it's a quality product because of the reputation Julian built with his very high standards.

[TunnelTiger]

The majority if NDP NAS bottles should be avoided and left to the masses. Tried a bottle of this last year with great regret.

[JGriff]

This review sums it up perfectly. Ouch.

http://youtu.be/6JgC6vcEl9o

[nd2005]

Yikes when a freakin liquor store is saying they wouldn't waste their money on it you know it's bad.

[JGriff]

In honor of this thread, I poured a nice helping of the red label

NAS. It's good but don't go overboard and pay a bunch of $$$ for the Kentucky juice. I'd much rather curl up to a bottle of ETL.